For some time our preparedness team has wrestled with how best to manage the expected rush of demand from a public all wanting to be first to receive protective vaccine. This concern was borne out by recent mass media images of thousands of high risk public waiting for hours outside clinics, only to be turned away for lack of vaccine.

Actions taken to address the issue(s):

Research on availabe tools to help efficiently "pre-register" large numbers of clinic goers.

Outcomes that resulted from actions taken:

We discovered an affordable vendor that specializes in web-based registrations for many large governemnt and corporate clients. Requiring pre-registration at our H1N1 clinics has worked wonderfully.Benefits: we define eligibly, we open only the number of slots that we have vaccine on hand to support, it's first come first served, we can schedule staff according to the number of pre-registrants, no one is turned away, no walk-ins, parking goes smoothly because there is a steady flow of people spread out over the clinic hours (people are grouped in 15 minute windows), and security is easier. Time from registration to "15 minute wait room" after receiving the shot at our 11.22 clinic was literally 5 minutes.